Irina reappears in Ireland

As day length and sunlight intensity increase, our tags now have a better chance to recharge. This can see the revival of tags that have been inactive over the darker, duller winter months. Knepp’s tag did this early last week: after several months of silence it reappeared and is now regularly sending high-quality data.

Today, a second bird, Irina, has done the same. Irina was tagged in County Cork last spring and, unlike her compatriots that visited Western Russia and the Baltic states, she headed north to Norway. Prior to Irina, the only Norwegian birds we had tagged in the British Isles had all been caught in Scotland.

The last time we heard from Irina was 14 July 2014. No further data regarding her whereabouts had been received until the arrival of two new data-points this morning. These show that Irina is back in Co. Cork at a site very close to where she was caught. We do not know how long Irina has been back in Ireland. It is possible that she has been there since the beginning of the winter, but this is the first opportunity her tag has had to transmit.

Although it means we have missed some potential autumn and winter data, Irina’s sudden return is good news. With luck, her tag will remain charged and we will be able to watch Irina make a second outward spring migration. We’re particularly interested to see whether Irina returns to the same breeding site in Norway later this year.

If and when she does, Irina will be joined by a new batch of tagged woodcock. The satellite tags arrived yesterday and are currently being charged, waiting for deployment across the UK in the coming weeks. We’re hoping these birds will go live in March, and join the likes of Irina and Knepp, as we track a fourth spring migration.

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Knepp transmits first data since September - returns home

At this time of year the amount of incoming data is never particularly high. This is always the case during the winter when the short days and low sunlight intensity are unable to keep the solar-powered batteries fully-charged. But there is always the hope, that if the conditions are right for long enough, the inactive tags will find receive enough sunlight to recharge and send new data.

After over five whole months of silence, one tag has managed to do just that. Knepp, a bird caught one year ago in Sussex, has returned new data for the first time since September. This surprising news shows that Knepp successfully completed his/her autumn migration and returned to winter at Knepp Castle; the site where (s)he was caught. This is yet another clear illustration of impeccable site-fidelity. Woodcock which, for the most part, seem loyal to particular breeding sites, wintering sites and stop-overs.

We’re incredibly pleased to receive these new data and we only hope that more tags will follow suit in the coming weeks. However, for those frustrated with the small amount of data being received at the moment – don’t fear. The new tags we’ve ordered are arriving shortly and will be deployed in a fortnight’s time. Once this is done, a new class of 2015 will go online and their spring migrations will be broadcast live from March onwards. Hopefully though, amongst these new birds, there will be one or two returning characters, like Knepp and Olwen, who we can track for a second or third year.

Free woodcock sponsorship for schools

by James Swyer

The GWCT is always keen to promote the importance of game conservation to future generations and in late 2014 we started to offer schools the opportunity to track a woodcock through our Woodcock Watch programme at no cost to them.

Fifteen schools have already signed up to the programme, and have been keenly tracking their bird as it makes its return journey. Interest has been widespread, with schools scattered from Norfolk to Belfast and covering all age ranges from pre-schools all the way up to sixth form colleges. All participants receive a pack including a certificate of sponsorship, factsheet, details of how to track their woodcock and regular email updates about the bird’s location and other relevant GWCT work – all free of charge.

I am delighted with the early feedback and have received telephone calls and emails from teachers telling me that ‘this has brought science to life for our pupils’, ‘it’s generating a lot of excitement’ and ‘my after school club love the fact we are sponsoring a real bird’.

Giving schoolchildren the opportunity to track their own bird as it travels thousands of miles could foster a real passion for our countryside, wildlife or science and we provide a series of lesson plans, produced by the National Gamekeepers’ Organisation Education Trust, to help teachers fit this all in the demands of the National Curriculum. All of these resources (and many more) are freely available to teachers nationwide via the TES website.

By providing information suitable for both Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 3 (ages 7-14), we are complementing the excellent work undertaken by our advisory department and Katrina Candy and introducing the importance of game management to schools to a younger age group.

I also hope to introduce the initiative to the Scouts and Girlguiding networks to show the value of our countryside and a bird most children would be unaware of.

If you would like more information about how your children’s school can apply for their free sponsorship pack, please contact me at jswyer@gwct.org.uk or call 01425 651021. If you are a teacher, teaching assistant or run an after school club, Scouts or Girl Guides group, please get in touch and I would be happy to send you a sponsorship pack.

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Taking stock whilst catching woodcock

We were out woodcock-catching again this week, adding to our totals at one of our ringing sites.

Project leader Andrew Hoodless had an impressive session on Monday night with eighteen woodcock caught; ten of which were recaptures. This is what this project is really all about; the investment in ringing is reaped when we recapture previously-ringed birds. Collecting repeated biometric measures from different marked individuals will, over time, improve our understanding of the bird’s movements and changes in condition. It does, however, come at some cost – especially on nights like Monday. The best woodcock-catching weather is wet and windy, which it certainly was, and Andrew ended the night soaked through and freezing cold.

We were out again last night with far less success. There was enough wind, but it was a very clear starlit night, and most of the birds we saw flushed. We managed five between us (mostly Andrew) and this did include one recaptured bird. Frustrated by having missed a lot of birds, I ended the night by catching something other than a woodcock. This obliging stock dove sat nicely, and made an interesting and unusual addition to our night’s total.


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Why aren't we seeing much new location data?

Many woodcock sponsors have noticed a recent lack of activity from the tagged birds, and would be forgiven for thinking that there is a problem with the Woodcock Watch website. We can assure that this is not the case; it’s simply that no data is being transmitted at present.

We currently believe that the problem relates to the tags’ batteries. The tags are solar-powered and need to be recharged by the sun. To fully recharge a battery from flat will take about 4 hours of bright sunlight. It seems that the tags are not receiving this. Day length is short and sunlight intensity low in the northern locations where the birds have spent the autumn. Light intensity on a sunny winter’s day is only one ninth of that experienced on a day in June. On top of this, the woodcock’s nocturnal, secretive nature means that it spends most of the day hidden beneath dense vegetation. This does not mean the tags are permanently out of action though; assuming that some of the birds are still alive, their tags will begin to transmit again as soon as they recharge. This point has been proven by Olwen, who has transmitted good-quality data this week despite having been out of touch for over two months. He has now reappeared in Lincolnshire, where he is alive and well, having made his way from Western Russia.

Olwen's journey

It’s important to remember that this research is not tried and tested; this is new technology which has not been trialled on woodcock. Most current satellite tagging studies performed in the UK relate to diurnal summer visitors migrating between Britain and Africa. This is a far cry from the nocturnal woodcock which is migrating north to Russia and Scandinavia. Because this is such a new area of research there will undoubtedly be surprises and unforeseen problems. Whilst this may seem a disappointment, we must keep in mind the quality of the revelatory spring data we have gathered using these tags which more than make up for the problems we experience in autumn.

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Woodcock - working to provide the shooting community with more facts

by Andrew Hoodless, Head of Wetland Research

Following Katrina Candy's piece in The Scotsman (Watch the birdie and help to save woodcocks - 9th December 2014) we'd like to take this opportunity to discuss the work we're doing to help understand the impact of shooting on woodcock populations.

We believe that the woodcock population in Europe as a whole is stable and numbers of birds wintering here have been stable for the last 20 years. Hence, we believe that the shooting of winter migrants is currently sustainable.

We are concerned about declines in our resident breeding population. While we think that these are likely to be driven primarily by other factors, such as reduced woodland management, increasing deer numbers, increased predation and changing climate, we cannot rule out shooting as a contributory factor.

We therefore advise landowners with breeding woodcock to delay shooting until migrant birds have arrived in good numbers, typically after the November full moon, and to give careful consideration to the numbers they shoot.

We currently have a PhD student investigating patterns of decline in our breeding woodcock and the possible causes. As part of the outputs of our programme of research on woodcock migration, we aim to provide the shooting community with better facts to enable them to make informed decisions. We are working on understanding the impact of shooting on woodcock populations, with a view to producing guidelines on the levels and circumstances where shooting is sustainable.

We plan to analyze our data sets to look for an impact of shooting (or not) and submit the evidence for peer review. But this has not happened yet!

To find out more about our woodcock research please click here >

Monkey III first woodcock to return to UK

Monkey III is now back in the UK making him/her our first to return this winter. His/her current location is within 5 km of the location we caught and tagged him/her in March this year.

Monkey III was expected to be the first bird back – (s)he was the closest of our birds to Britain since arriving in the Netherlands on 11th November. Now (s)he has made the final hop across the North Sea and taken up a familiar wintering site in Hampshire.

His/her outward journey in spring, from Hampshire to Western Russia, saw him/her take a route that included a brief stop-over in Lincolnshire. It looks as though Monkey III did not make this stop on his/her return journey but we cannot be certain of this. (S)he may have called in briefly without pausing long enough for his/her tag to transmit from Lincolnshire.

Finally, to explain the question of Monkey III’s gender: sex in woodcock is determined by bill length. Males, on average, have shorter bills than females though there is an intermediate grey area where the ranges overlap. With a bill of 72mm, Monkey III fell within this region and so, unlike the majority of our other tagged birds, we cannot be certain of his/her sex.

Please help us continue our woodcock research